Imero Fiorentino

Imero Fiorentino was a lighting director who for more than half a century orchestrated the play of luminescence and shadow on television shows, in commercials and at live performances, illuminating -- or not -- everything from jowls to Jell-O to ginger ale. Fiorentino was largely unknown outside the technical circles in which he was an acknowledged master. But there is scarcely anyone alive in America today who has not experienced his work.

Equal parts conjurer and diplomat, Mr. Fiorentino was, as Newsweek wrote in 1969, "the Picasso of spots and strobes," widely credited with transforming television lighting from engineering into art.

At ABC, where he began his career, he lighted some of the best-known programs on early television, establishing a look that endures to this day.

Over time, Mr. Fiorentino illuminated some of the biggest names to grace the small screen: Frank Sinatra, Bill Cosby, Hal Holbrook in the 1967 television version of his one-man show "Mark Twain Tonight!" and, in a memorable Schick commercial from 1968, Joe Namath parting company with his mustache.

He illuminated pavilions at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, live concerts by Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand and, for TV in 1964, the first heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) and Sonny Liston.